THERE IS NO DAMN WINNER IN A WAR. You ain't bring back the dead to life. You ain't make grow a flower, but you can kill a flower. Our prayers for those innocent civilians who were killed. My prayers for those 38 children who were slaughtered in Gaza. When all this stops in the Middle East? When Palastinians and Isralis will live hand in hand share food and shake hands? This is my dream to see them living in peace and in equal opportunities and in equal income. I pray for that one day to come true.

Israel is more of a political, economic and military burden for the US. US gains nothing by providing unconditional support to Israel. Amercian tax payers should ask about the rationale for providing huge funds and what return it brings. Most of the times, Israel doesn't even listen to US request.

1. Iran -Winner- , The fact that the focus of world attention is not on uranium and centrifuges, rather its on the Israel-Hamas-and-Palestinian statehood, welcome back to your regularly scheduled conflict.
a. Arms - Rocket smugglers- Winner-, got a chance to test their Iranian Fajr-5 weapons and determine their next purchase order. Plus with negotiations including a discussion of lifting of checkpoints and other Israeli safeguards, the pipeline of arms may get bigger.
b. Arms -Defense salesman-BIG WIN- whoever designed the "Iron canopy" I hope you can continue to perfect your technology and produce enough to bring the costs down. "keeping humans safe from terrorists", what a marketing campaign.!

2. Winner is Egypt's President, Muhammad Morsi, for his role in brokering the ceasefire.Welcome to the broader political stage.
It gives Morsi an opportunity to represent the Muslim Brotherhood ties to Hamas. It also attempts to draw the U.S. into negotiations with Hamas. Which the U.S. policy does not allow negotiations with terrorists. Hamas has been a terrorist organization for decades already.
As I said before the cease-fire; 'While Egyptian President Morsi must try politically to both show the Egyptian people that he stands with the Gaza Palestinians, and supports their armed struggle for annihilation of Israel; and at the same time appear to be a reasonable peacemaker and broker in the eyes of the U.S. and EU. How Morsi handles this will define his reputation. ' Well done I hope the people of Egypt approve your leadership.

3. U.S.A.- Winner- Secretary Clinton arrives in time to arm-twist a cease-fire. Showing level heads prevail.
a. Opportunity for a Big Win. President Obama. He has a chance to do what even Bill Clinton tried tiredly and extensively to achieve. A Mideast Peace beginning with Israel and Palestinian normalization. He has the prospect of altering the perception that he is anti-Netanyahu and in-cordial toward the Israeli government. . This is the saga that many second term Presidents attempt.Mideast Peace Process Plan. This is Presidential Legacy Politics. The unsolvable FUBARed up situation kind. However there is a warning label on the side of this one. Just try not to make it worse, handle with care, its volatile, combustable, and flammable.

b. Also He has an opportunity to bring Democracy to Arab-Spring and the moderate people of the Arab countries. (Its all a Utopian fantasy for Obama, but an opportunity is an opportunity)

4. Prime Minister of Israel Benjamin Netanyahu -Winner- He stood up and responded to rockets being fired into his country. He had a moral obligation as leader of a country to protect his citizens from attacks. He had a moral obligation to use precision guided weapons, instead of sending troops, or using larger more explosive ordinance to stirke at rooftop launch sites and basement stockpiles. Both of which would have made death tolls sound like they were coming out of Syria's conflict.
But most of all even though he is perceived as an aggressive war hawk, when given the first opportunity to end the volley of rockets and declare a cease-fire, he agreed. Even while there are those in his population who are screaming for justice and safety. Even while they are calling on him to eradicate militant Hamas jihadists, like America is doing in Afghanistan against Al-Qaeda, going after those who strike at you. PM Netanyahu had a moral obligation to choose stoping the violence. He agreed, and cautioned for the hope of peace.

1. Big Loser in all of this -Hamas- , Starting a war with smuggled rockets being fired on civilian populations. Firing launch sites that are placed in and around sensitive civilian populations. Hiding amongst buildings that contain children and families. a loser for instigating a fight, then blaming the retaliatory attack as the cause for the violence. and the Bus bomb in Tel-Aviv. Its one thing to attack The Military Leader of Hamas, its deplorable and condemnable to blow up civilians on a bus.

Hamas leadership looses for continuing the ongoing cycle of violence and terrorism, against the population of both the Israelis and Palestinians. Their high-handed tyrannical hold onto terrorism as its harsh sword, which swings through the civilians on both sides, interrupting lives.

TO the people who lost their lives, their loved ones, friends and family on both sides of the battle, I am sorry for your loss. This for you is not a game of win and loose. For you the analysis of political gain in a deep and complicated struggle does nothing and means nothing. The passion and hatred that comes with this conflict breaks down in the face of death and loss of a loved one. it remakes itself into a personal deep commitment.

I think people read too much into an agreement that says nothing. It's in English, btw. You can not only read it but see a photo of it.

Some people want it to say that Israel will stop doing some things and Hamas will stop doing some things and will be even more responsible for keeping the peace on their side. Maybe. It's not in the document. So I doubt it's real.

Putting the document aside, my reading now is this:

1. Egypt has both gained and lost. Gained because they have continued to fill the role they have filled. Lost because they are continuing in a role they don't really seem to want. It seems they want to get more from Israel on behalf of Hamas but they are constrained to act as they have. This is the practicality of government.

2. The good news for the West is that Egypt is acting pragmatically rather than ideologically. Morsi actually referred to Israel by name. That may have been a public first for him. He chose this course rather than extremism. At least for now. That's big.

3. When people think of this ceasefire, it's important to remember the prior situation had deteriorated dramatically. It was an almost open war. The number of rockets fired into Israel has risen tremendously over the last months. That was not acceptable to Israel so they stepped up their attacks and we had a cycle of violence moving up. If we now get a period of relative calm, then this is a good result. Why? Because we have to accept there is no other solution. Hamas is not going to back down and obviously Israel isn't either. So they need to do this every once in a while. Why? Because they can't talk about a more permanent solution of any kind. The reasons for that are almost all because Hamas refuses to talk to Israel - won't even say the name - and refuses to recognize in any way that Gaza is an international border. So they'll fight and we should hope it stays confined.

4. As a military note, we're seeing some real shifts in what's happening. Drones have become an extremely important attack weapon. Note that Israeli responses to rocket fire seem to have become much closer in time - meaning faster response - over recent months and this seems to have continued in this latest blow-up. This has meaning for all conflicts, as we're seeing in the US hidden war in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Second, the missile defense system is becoming real. It was pie in the sky only a few years ago. The new generation is a huge improvement. The tracking, identification and calculation abilities are not even relatable to what existed with the old Patriot system - that didn't work, btw. We take Israeli skill for granted but consider that Iron Dome was identifying launches and determining within the launch window whether the missile was a threat or not. This may not be useful in most conflicts, but it is an amazing step forward.

Well put, although, it may be worth noting that Egypt does try to play both sides, albeit clumsily. It's in Morsi's domestic interest to whoop up solidarity with Hamas, while acting pragmatically to avoid scaring foreign debt holders (or the IMF).

Whoever won, the dead and the maimed lost. The leaders of both sides are war criminals and should be treated as such. Obama's kowtowing to his client, Netanyahu, is disgusting and embarrasses the US to the world.

So you would put the US military and political leaders on trial for their repeated bombings of civilians in Iraq, Afghanistan and especially Pakistan (which is an ally)? We continuously bomb targets and kill children. We've attacked more than a few weddings, killing dozens, by mistake. So we get GWBush and Cheney and Obama and Biden and Gates and so on and put them on trial? Because we've killed many, many, many times more civilians than Hamas and Israel have combined.

When muslim civillians in Afghanistan are killed in bombings, there is an apology and a pledge to reconsider the practices. When christian orthodox civillians were bombed and killed in Yugoslavia(a country that had done nothing to the West), there was no apology and the verdict was that 'the bombings must intenify'. Conclusion: Muslim lives are far more important than other lives for NATO and the US.

Netanyahu,and Barak look dejected in the picture as if the State of Israel has achieved nothing except killing a large number of Palestinian Children,Women and elderly people.Will it be enough for them to return again
to office?The peace loving people of the entire region and probably many in the Israel proper might have noted that Netanyahu government has finally negotiated an oblique deal with Hamas.Maybe,in the near future,Israeli leaders would not hesitate to enter into direct negotiations with Hamas.

"Netanyahu,and Barak look dejected in the picture as if the State of Israel has achieved nothing except killing a large number of Palestinian Children,Women and elderly people."

Maybe that's what you think they look like, but it bears no resemblance to what's actually happened. Israel's striking back at Hamas with some of the most precise weapons in its arsenal and the only reason civilians are getting killed is because Hamas uses them as human shields. If they were decent men they wouldn't put civilians at harm by staying so close to them.

You are free to say what you like.But the picture tells us all and Hamas does not use civilians as human shields.Israel gets pleasure in targeting civilians.Although Hamas looks taller,no one can be called winner in this senseless aerial battle started by Israel.Israel did not strike back at Gaza rather they initiated the bombardment after assassinating the military chief of Hamas.
Anyway,Israel has now agreed not to repeat targeting assassination and the Gaza siege is going to be eased out soon.

If one takes a look at the statements of Mr. Netanyahu that he knows that some of their citizens want more military action, and that maybe they will still need it in the future, and that it was their military might with political perspicacity, one can clearly understand the depravity of the mind of this Israeli leaders. Over four decades, Israel sealed off Gaza Strip, West Bank, and the Palestine as a whole, imprisoned the Palestinians on their own land, killed thousands of children and civilians over simple reaction of the Palestinians over such crack-down. With such statements, the Israeli leader tries to be more popular to the hardliners, and gives message to the artillery forces to stay prepared for further go-ahead instruction. Grabbing of Arab land with the consent of the world leaders is not enough for the Israeli leaders, they have to victimize the nationals of the Palestine, and pinch them to react or hurl stone or bomb in the forcefully settled Israeli territory, and thus cook a ground to downsize the population of the Palestine through brutal massacre, and grab their lands in front of the UN, and the west. The world leaders seem to be hushed at the assaults of Israel at humanity! Doen’t Mr. Netanyahua represent the depravity of world's super power?

Can't say there were winners. There's no nobility in both blindly shooting missiles into Israel and Israel exacting disproportional defense/revenge.
That said, Morsi and Egypt did well. The world needs more moderate Islamic governments. Egypt is on my wish list for an expanded U.N. Security Council. Not likely to happen, but, just saying.

By you asking the question "who won" and then going on to analyze the political points each side has scored, it is a sad affirmation that this conflict came about because of very cynical motives on both sides. Hamas, for showing strength and hammering out a deal to open borders (which you have ignored)and Netanyahu and co for showing strength but centrist restraint to reach out to what they'd perceive to be a centrist electorate. That said, it is interesting to see Egypt's newfound proactive involvement coupled with US's support. Iran must be fuming for failing to keep a conflict persisting and Turkey looking sheepish for all their talk about being the big boss in the region and not following through. So, however-much cynicism this conflict is rooted in, maybe one should feel optimistic about the road ahead given the potential for credible-ish hands (Obama and Morsi) reconciling the differences of two parties (Hamas and Likud) that don't generally have much appetite for moderation. Or the political points that Hamas and Likud claim to have scored may not be the case and alternative, more moderate voices will be voted in. Either way, a fragile hope for peace and a two state solution could be viable. Or this may just be wishful thinking.

The Bibi Zionists have the assassination drones while the Salafists can get to fire the cheap rockets. Although the Zionists have yet to launch the ground troops, they know that they will be training up a few more Jihadist brigades ready to be deployed elsewhere for the Wahhabi-US regime change agenda.

It not only sounds, but it is actually a sinister plot to control the Oil resources by the Oil sisters using whatever conflicts that can be generated in the region like the Sunni-Shias thousand years civil war.

"...suggesting to assembled newsmen there that the three Israeli leaders looked glum"
These guys never look that good anyhow, don't they? ;) but that doesn't change change the facts:
1. For years, Hamas had planned to terrorize the Israeli population, kill hundreds of civilians, and cause huge damages to Israeli towns, cities, factories, ports, etc., but none of this happened.
Instead, Israel showcased a nonpareil technological achievement - the Iron Dome, which everybody agrees is a game changer in the full sense. Israel will be earning billions of dollars from exporting future generations of this system to Western countries and their allies, and will help protect US military personnel and facilities worldwide. It was a most impressive tour de force.
2. The Israeli air force managed to grind Hamas to a point where its leaders became impatient and prematurely announced a ceasefire before the Israelis did. That added another layer of humiliation to Hamas' embarrassment from its failure to achieve its stated goals.
3. Israel has shown remarkable restraint, and yet, it has kept the option of squeezing Hamas even more by invading the Gaza strip with ground forces.
4. Interestingly, Hezbollah has stayed quiet all this time, which proves they're more careful than they used to be. Now that Assad's regime is on its way to the dustbin of history (love that phrase!).., and the Iranian regime is under severe internal and external pressure, Hezbollah's options are limited, and Iron Dome has basically neutered their offensive capabilities.

Having said that, the Israeli victory is not one in the full sense, because achieving such victory against an enemy who's so weak is practically impossible, especially since Israel doesn't feel like re-occupying Gaza.
The Israeli victory comes from the fact that Hamas has been downgraded from 'Enemy' to 'Nuisance', one that's being cheered by its unconditional supporters for merely 'defying' Israel.

You're not optimistic; you're misty-optic. As soon as Bibi gets a new term in office, he'll go back to his policy of "malign neglect" until (1) the Gaza militants get feisty again, or (2) another election is due, whichever comes first.

Couple comments:
1. Weak old guys usually don't accumulate thousands of rockets and launch them in an attempt to murder hundreds of people - young and old civilians.
2. I understand from your comment that you basically agree with the notion that Israel won big time, and Hamas has been shown to be pretty much powerless - except for the power to generate (somehow misplaced) pity.

Peace & Harmony in the world is a preciously rare commodity as the Zionists are inclined or addicted to Wars, so says the Nobel Peace Laureate Carter. There are now no other more deserving candidates, except the hardworking sister Hilliary and brother Morsi who should be declared the joint Nobel Laureates for Peace.

Hatred - Peace: 1 - 0. Israel and Hamas can exercise their rethoric in all forms and shapes, they both won. Palestine's Prime Minister lost: his candidacy to UN observer seat was put in the freezer by Secretary of State with placet from Egypt. So, any "real" chance of starting a peace process is lost, not even in translation.

Peace process is a myth; go on talking and do nothing; from historical prospective, no amount of spin or propaganda can disguise this truth. Till such time the project greater Israel is accomplished, there will be peace attempts made from time to time as a smoke screen. There can be no peace or peace process with out a neutral, honest and an unbiased peace broker. America cannot bring about a solution when it happens to be THE problem.
As for who won; in my opinion it is childish and silly talk. When people have been killed and wounded on both sides, both are losers.

Guess what then, if a peace process was a myth, then Israel just utterly failed. They should have hit harder and kept hitting through the complete annhilitaion of the enemy. Fast, before any other party would have time to do a thing, and then it would be late.

Yup. I knew before I looked at the comments just what I would find. Those supporting murdering Israeli civilians with rockets, and those condeming or defending Israel for defending its population. And of course, a few lamenting the whole affair and a very few trying to make judgements about the situation.

I condemn the violence, but what is Israel going to do? Just sit-back and do nothing? Surrender? Hamas knows neither of these is likely, so I have to conclude that Hamas wants the retaliation for its own political reasons. I don't pretend to know what those reasons are; perhaps you can tell me. But it is impossible to defend Hamas when it deliberately endangers civilians by launching rockets from schools, hospitals, and residential areas. They deliberately invite retaliation and then condemn the results. Its insane no matter which "side" you blindly support. The war continues.

The violence exists because millions of Palestinians live in Apartheid created by Israel. The violence exists because millions of Palestinians are not seen as human by Israelis and their Zionist cheerleading supporters. The violence exists because Israelis have stolen Palestinian land and possessions and forced them into refugee camps. The violence exists because millions of Palestinians are treated worse than animals by Israelis and their Terrorist soldiers. When Israel corrects these problems the violence will go away. Otherwise the violence exists...

As usual, the guys running the military-industrial complex can get their hands in blood money in glee. Neocons can now easily demand another hike in military spending to whack the demonized Moslems in the Ummah.